Day by Day

Saturday, December 23, 2006

The last time I discussed "Jamil," the details were still hotly debated, and I was reminded of my relatively meaningless battle over "George Harleigh" (a fictitious professor science professor who had worked for both Nixon and Reagan, and who could always be depended on to sound off about the horrors of Bush).

I soon noticed that there's a downside to debunking fraudulent people or claims. The people who make them up -- and most of those who agree with them -- simply don't care. Because the characters and claims are invented to support what they already believe fervently, debunking them does not "count."

Lies presented in furtherance of a greater "truth" are not really considered to be lies, at least not in the moral sense. The idea is to persuade people, and if fictional people or incidents have to be used, that's OK, as long as it's in the interest of the greater truth.

The problem I have with this approach is that I don't like being lied to. Even when I agree with the cause the lie is intended to support. I don't find lies emotionally fulfilling because they pollute the process of thought. When lies are presented as "news reports," it's even worse, because it makes me distrustful every time I pick up the paper or turn on the television.

The Broken Media's handling of the Jamil Hussien scandal has highlighted everything that's wrong with them. A fake source that they can't produce, lies built upon lies, the inability to distinguish right from wrong, and the unthinking defense of everything they've done when the facts are clearly not on their side. CV also has some delusional Leftist writing a defense of the AP that shows how far from reality the Left is.

despite the hundreds of stories AP files from Iraq each week, and the thousands posted annually since the invasion, warbloggers can only find fault with a single story, yet insist that one is enough to tarnish the AP's Iraq reporting and all mainstream news reporting from Baghdad.

It's not going to work. If warbloggers want to prove that cowardly American journalists are being duped by local Iraqi stringers pushing a terrorist agenda, or that the AP is guilty of chronically manufacturing bad news, they are going to have to do more than flush out Jamil Hussein.

Check out what this goober says. We can only find fault with one story? How myopic can you get? It's not one story, it's one source that has been used to make up hundreds if not THOUSANDS of stories, and damn near each story has been used to hammer against the US presence in Iraq.

The fact that this source cannot be confirmed should bring shame upon every reporter who works for the AP. This isn't just a few crazy warbloggers going off on one story, this is a trend of the AP using fake people to make fake stories that are damaging to the US, and from what everyone can see it's been going on for YEARS!

YEARS!

Not ONE story out of thousands, not a few mess-ups in a month, this is the systematic deception of the American People by a lying media that is pushing it's own agenda! Why is it that every time we "crazy warbloggers" turn around, we're finding yet MORE evidence that the Broken Media is lying it's ass off in the pursuit of it's agenda? If it's not Jamil Hussien then it's the fouxtography scandal. If it's not the fouxtography scandal, it's Green Helmet Guy. If it ain't Green Helmet Guy, then it's the media frenzy over Palestinian funerals that turn out to be fake! Every time we turn around, there's yet ANOTHER LIE pushed forward by the Broken Media that's debunked, and every lie is used to discredit either Bush in particular or Conservatives in general.

Jamil Hussien isn't just ONE story that we have a problem with. The growing Hussien scandal is just another chapter in a book of lies, half-truths, deceptions, falsehoods, and agenda pushing that we've come to expect from the Broken Media. And yes, it's a big deal. Fake sources presented as the gospel truth is a big deal. Lies and agendas pushed forward as "news" is a big deal. And all of this is just one more reason for me to never believe anything that comes from the AP.

When you have to triple-check the "facts" that come from a news report, then the news report isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

My wife has a sourdough pot. For those who don't know, sourdough requires it's own special bacteria in order to get that taste that's so famous. Normal bread just uses yeast and that's it. Sourdough uses yeast AND the special bacteria.

For those who are now going "EEWWWWWW!", stop it. Bacteria isn't just something that gives you an ear infection, OK? Have you ever had yogurt? Bacteria. Bread? That's yeast, which is a bacteria. Beer? Wine? Whiskey? Any other alcohol?

Yep. That's created by bacteria.

So anyways, back to the sourdough pot. Unlike regular yeast, which can be dried and stored for months at a time, sourdough requires a nice warm wet environment in which to live. You can't dry it out, so you have to have a container of live active cultures if you want to bake any sourdough bread. That's what the wife has.

Now, she's going to be baking for Christmas. Lots and lots of bread and rolls, and since she's got the sourdough pot, it'll all be sourdough bread. So she's getting the pot ready to use. You have to take part of the sourdough culture out and put it in the bread mix in addition of yeast, so you have to replenish it, right? Or, in my wife's case, built that sourdough pot up to the point where you can use up 75% of it and still have enough left over to keep it going.

So it's at this point that I point out that an exploding sourdough pot does not a clean stovetop make.

Nothing quite let's you know that there are living things in there like watching the flour and bacteria mix actually bubble like it was a boiling pot. That's the by-product of the bacteria, after all. CO2 and alcohol. When it's just a small pot, like we normally keep, you see a few bubbles suspended in the pot, but until we got this thing growing I have never seen it actually boil.

Not that I'm bothered by it, other than having to clean the stovetop. No, I'm more just amazed at what we as humans are able to to with our food. Bacteria, folks. Cool as hell.

I guess the whole point of this post is to just let you know that my wife kicks so much ass that she keeps a sourdough pot in the kitchen in order to bake fresh sourdough bread. Yeah, I'm bragging. I admit it. Whaddyagonnado?

More info has come out about former Security Adviser Sandy Berger's stealing and destruction of Code Word Classified documents. I'm amazed that he's not in jail. I'm amazed that he's not locked up in a dark cell for the rest of his natural life.

Look folks, this isn't a partisan issue. I have a security clearance, as do most if not all of the NCOs and Officers in the military, no matter which branch. If you're given a position of authority in the military, the military does a background check on you. I needed a Secret clearance when I became a Military Policeman. Now that I'm a Quartermaster, I don't need the Secret, but I still have it. You need at least a Classified clearance once you attain a certain rank.

Now, they don't just hand you your security clearance and say "Have a nice day!" They make sure you understand just what will befall you if you screw up and mishandle classified information. And they don't just do it once. We have OPSEC briefings at least once a year. We are constantly warned about what could happen if classified information that we have was stolen, destroyed, mishandled, ect.

Now Berger wasn't a military officer, he was the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER! He's supposed to be in charge of the information security for the ENTIRE COUNTRY! And yet, here he was, stuffing documents of the highest level of classification down his fucking PANTS, walked out of the National Archives, and DESTROYED THEM!

And he's STILL not in jail!

Look, if I take classified documents from a file and destroy them, I don't get a slap on the wrist. I spend years and years in Ft. Leavenworth breaking big rocks into small rocks, and those small rocks into smaller rocks. And that's for Secret classifications.

But the top level? Berger steals and destroys documents that are the HIGHEST LEVEL OF CLEARANCE, and he gets.....

PROBATION?!?!?!?! I would spend the rest of my life in lock-up, but Berger gets probation?

Things like that are the reason why I say that all the politicians in Washington D.C., all the hanger-ons, all the syncophants, all the lawyers, every person who might possibly be in a position of power in D.C. needs to be taken out behind a barn and shot.

They're broken, folks. It's not just the system, it's the people in the system to have had their way for too long. The favoritism, cronyism, hell, all the -isms that are in use in D.C., the waste, the pork, the earmarks, the corruption (and let's be clear, damn near every single fuckstick on Capitol Hill is corrupt), they all need to be removed from the American gene pool. Send them to France, where spineless, parasitic, money-grubbing shitstains are welcomed. Send them to Iran, because so long as they are there, ain't NOTHING gonna happen. Not the way they talk and talk and talk with a complete lack of any kind of meaningful action. No matter who is in Congress, nothing will change because the people who are there are BROKEN, and they need to be removed.

Gah. Piss on Berger. He was hiding something for his boss, 'ol Slick Willy Clinton. And he's only going to get probation. Justice ain't blind, folks. When it comes to Washington D.C., Justice is a used-up whore with her legs permanently in the air, just waiting for another Congressional John with some cash to come along. Berger should be in jail for the rest of his life. The fact that he isn't proves that everyone who has dealt with this case is worthless.

Where I get to run my ass off helping people get the holiday spirit. And then having a wee tip 'o the bottle to put myself into the holiday spirit. You catch my drift?

What this doesn't leave much time for is blogging. To put it bluntly, I'm preoccupied with family and friends, so I don't have much time left for anything else. And since my co-bloggers have vanished into the great beyond, ne'er to be seen again, that means that you won't get getting much in the way of blog-o-rama here at the home of the Right Wing Wacko until the Christmas season is done. I'm not saying that I'm not going to blog, but it's not going to be a normal amount.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Perhaps a few years ago, but it's worth re-posting every now and then.

It's a school test from Salina, Kansas, circa 1895. And if you didn't pass this test, you did not graduate from the Eighth Grade.

Go look at that test and tell me how it compares with the education YOU received in the 8th grade. It's scary just how far our education establishment has fallen. An eighth-grade education used to mean something. Now?

Now, we're lucky if kids graduate from the 12th grade able to read and write in English.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Putting Iran and Syria on notice that we will bomb terrorists flocking across their borders.

Give an ultimatum to militia heads, especially Moqtadar Sadr, to disband or face annihilation from the United States.

Expand the rules of engagement in all matters dealing with IEDs, with a shoot on sight rule concerning anyone found implanting or aiding such efforts.

Enlarge the planned Iraqi security forces to near 400,000, and embed far more Americans in those units.

Recalibrate the ratio of support to combat troops, so that we don’t simply create bigger compounds to facilitate larger troop levels to end up with more stationary and more numerous targets—and ever more enclaves of Americans behind thousands of acres of bermed reserves.

So spell out the mission, the new rules of engagement, and then, and only then, surge—if need be— more troops.

Given the fact that our "leadership" in DC currently consists of weak, spineless, money-grubbing, corrupt parasites who care more about lining their pockets rather than actual men or women who want to protect this country, I expect this advice and all advice like this to go unheeded.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A dozen Army and Marine recruiters who visited high schools were among the personnel caught in a major FBI cocaine investigation, and some were allowed to keep working while under suspicion, a newspaper reported Sunday.

And lower down comes the meat of the story:

So far, 69 members of the military, prison guards, law enforcement employees and other public employees have been convicted of accepting bribes to help smuggle cocaine.

So, less than one-fifth of the people listed are in the military, and yet what's the only group named in the headline?